Doliprane: the American CD&R fund, a heavyweight in private equity

The American fund CD&R (Clayton Dubilier&Rice), chosen by Sanofi for the takeover of its consumer medicines branch, Opella, which notably produces Doliprane, is an important player in private equity. It’s a heavyweight too. The eleventh in the world in the sector, he explains on his website. He would have made an offer of 15 billion euros to Sanofi.

Since its creation in 1978, CD&R has already invested in some 90 companies, such as Hertz, Lexmark, the tire manufacturer Goodrich and Fedex, with 57 billion dollars (52 billion euros) in assets under management in 2023.

He is also not unknown on the French market. In 2003, he bought Culligan, the water treatment specialist from Veolia, for $610 million. Since then, CD&R has made other investments in France.

Present in several French companies

It is notably one of the shareholders of Conforama and But, via Mobilux, a subsidiary it holds with the Austrian XXXLutz. He was also involved in Rexel, a manufacturer of electrical equipment, Spie, an engineering company and Socotec, an industrial inspection specialist, in which he still holds 29% of the capital.

CD&R has thus been able to weave its web in business circles. One of his advisors in France is, for example, Gilles Schnepp, the former CEO of Legrand, who in 2021 became the chairman of the board of directors of Danone. But he is also a director of Sanofi, recalls a source close to PAI, the unfortunate rival of the American fund in the acquisition of Opella.

These managers of the French fund did not digest this defeat, even though their offer was, according to them, quite close in terms of price to that of CD&R, which nevertheless has a larger financial base and a global approach to the market.